The present invention relates to a network community system for constructing a network community capable of particularly having interactive communication on a subject with a high similarity, exchanging information or carrying on electronic commerce among a plurality of network users on a computer network represented by the Internet by utilizing, for example, a distributed object technology.
In recent years, on a computer network represented by the Internet, a network community capable of having interactive communication and exchanging information by exchanging messages among a plurality of network users (which will be sometimes simply referred to as xe2x80x9cusersxe2x80x9d hereinafter) on a specific subject has been realized. The messages herein mean information including not only text data such as a text in an electronic mail message but also voice data and image data.
Specifically, an electronic conference, a forum and a mailing list service are well-known network communities. In any system, a system manager or organizer presets a plurality of subjects, allows users to participate on the respective common subjects and to thereby realize conferences or exchange of opinions and exchange of information among the participating users.
The network community allowing a conference, exchange of opinion or exchange of information among participating users centering around common subjects is a kind of a network service realized particularly through the Internet.
Meanwhile, a conventional network community makes use of a client/server system and is provided by a business company such as an Internet service provider which operates the server. The conventional system is, therefore, a community provided on the network in a closed cyberspace. In other words, the system is a community operated on preset specific subjects and members of the system are only users who positively demonstrate the intent of participation and then participate in the community. Therefore, the conventional network community is lacking in expansibility or flexibility since participants are fixed or users who are interested in a plurality of subjects need to comply with formalities to participate in the community.
In view of the future development of computer networks such as the Internet, it is desirable that a network community is generated spontaneously, autonomously without the need of a server managed by a specific service provider business company.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a network community system capable of spontaneously, autonomously generating and managing a network community allowing interactive communication, exchange of opinions and exchange of information on a common subject or a subject with a high similarity on a computer network such as the Internet without the need of a server managed by a specific business company.
The present invention is related to a system for constructing a network community capable of dynamically generating a group of community users (users) loosely linked to one another by a theme with a high similarity and realizing a so-called electronic conference, interactive communication (electronic chat), information exchange or electronic commerce.
A system according to the present invention has means for establishing a logical path network for exchanging information including programs and data among computers on a computer network, means for exchanging agents including a message through the logical path network, message storing means for registering messages included in agents transmitted from other computers and accumulating a group of messages for the respective computers, and means for referring to the messages accumulated by the message storing means of the respective computers.
The network community system according to the present invention is a kind of an application software installed in a computer of each user and functions as a platform for generating a network community. This system is provided with, as main constituent functions, a logical path network establishing function, a communication function (including agent exchanging means) and a data storing function (message storing function).
In other words, this system generates a logical path network among the computers connected to the network and exchanges agents through this path network. The logical path network is not fixedly generated but may be changed based on predetermined conditions. The agent is, for example, an object (object-oriented program) consisting of data and a method of processing the data, and executes predetermined processing while moving on the network.
Namely, according to the present invention, the agent carries a message created by a certain computer network user to other computers and executes processing for registering the message in the message storing means of the other computers. At this time, information (e.g., a mail address) for specifying the user who wrote the message on the network is added to the message. The agent also executes processing for referring to messages accumulated in the message storing means and retrieving a message on a subject with a high similarity to the message carried by the agent itself. Further, the agent has a function of posting information for specifying a user who wrote the retrieved message to the computer user who transmits the message carried by the agent.
In the system constituted as stated above, a plurality of users who are interested in a certain subject transmit their own messages on, for example, the Internet, whereby a community to which the users belong, is spontaneously, autonomously generated. In other words, it is possible to form a network community consisting of members loosely linked to one another by a subject with a high similarity, on the Internet without the need of a specific server function. The network community is characterized in that it is generated not by users"" participation in the community on a preset subjects but generated loosely and autonomously by individual network users"" transmission of free messages. The network community does not require special formalities to comply with for participation. In addition, if a single user is interested in a plurality of subjects, the user can belong to communities for the respective subjects by transmitting messages on the respective subjects.
The users belonging to a common community can hold an electronic conference, have interactive communication, exchange opinions and exchange information on a one-to-one basis or among plural users by utilizing an electronic mail function or the like. Furthermore, if the content of the common subject is related to a specific business, it is possible to execute so-called electronic commerce to the respective users.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.